I. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of this invention are directed generally to biology and medicine. In certain aspects, methods and compositions for treating a prostate cancer patient with a glucocorticoid receptor (GR) antagonist are provided. More specifically, the methods comprise treating a subject with castration-resistant prostate cancer with a GR antagonist, in particular in a subject that has previously received and demonstrated prostate cancer progression despite androgen-deprivation therapy.
II. Background
Localized prostate cancers are treated with curative intent by surgery or radiation, however, as many as 40% of patients will develop recurrent disease over time, and it remains the second leading cause of cancer related death in men (Jemal et al., 2010; Ward and Moul, 2005). There are established predictors of prostate cancer recurrence or progression and widely used prognostic nomograms, which in large part utilize common pathologic criteria (Han et al., 2003; Pound et al., 1999; Makarov et al., 2007; Stephenson et al., 2006). Furthermore, there are multiple biomarkers in development to help further hone prostate cancer prognostication (Fradet, 2009; Fiorentino et al., 2010). Nonetheless, the biologic factors modulating prostate cancer biology and progression despite anti-androgen therapy remain an important area of research.
The majority of prostate cancers rely on the androgen receptor (AR) for cell survival and proliferation, and the pathway remains important in the progression of prostate cancer even in patients whose disease progresses despite androgen deprivation therapy (Zegarra-Moro et al., 2002; Scher and Sawyers, 2005). Recently, serum/glucocorticoid-regulated kinase 1 (SGK1) was found to be upregulated by AR activation in prostate cancer cell lines resulting in enhanced prostate cancer cell survival in vitro (Shanmugam et al., 2007; Zou et al., 2009; Bolton et al., 2007). SGK1 is a serine/threonine protein kinase with 54% homology in its catalytic domain to Akt and is involved in a multitude of metabolic and cell survival functions (Tessier and Woodgett, Jr., 2006). SGK1 is transcriptionally induced and its protein product plays an important role in cellular responses to stressors such as oxidation, heat, and ultraviolet radiation (Tessier and Woodgett, 2006). SGK1 has been shown to be overexpressed in a proportion of human breast cancers (Sahoo et al., 2005) and to be important in protection from stress-induced apoptosis in breast cancer cell lines (Mikosz et al., 2001; Wu et al., 2004). Similarly, androgen-sensitive prostate cancer cell lines that ectopically express SGK1 demonstrate increased survival following androgen-deprivation compared to those that do not overexpress the SGK1 (Shanmugam et al., 2007). In addition, in vitro studies using small interfering RNAs targeting SGK1 or small molecule pharmacologic inhibitors of SGK1 demonstrate that inhibition of SGK1 activity leads to decreased androgen-mediated prostate cancer cell growth (Shanmugam et al., 2007; Sherk et al., 2008). The inventors showed SGK1 expression is high in primary prostate cancers and reduced following anti-androgen therapy (Szmulcwitz et al., 2010) To the inventors' knowledge, there has been only one other study examining SGK1 expression in primary human prostate tumors; somewhat surprisingly, SGK1 expression was significantly decreased in prostate cancers as compared to prostatic hypertrophy (Rauhala et al., 2005). In addition to the AR, SGK1 is also a direct target of glucocorticoid receptor (GR) activation in epithelial cells. Interestingly, standard chemotherapy regimens for castrate-resistant prostate cancer include glucocorticoids such as prednisone, a GR agonist (Tannock et al., 2004; Pctrylak et al., 2006). Although a proportion of patients show responses by a reduction in the tumor marker PSA and obtain palliative benefits from glucocorticoid treatment, there are no phase III data demonstrating that glucocorticoids provide a survival benefit (Fakih et al., 2002). Therefore, it is unclear how glucocorticoids function in metastatic prostate cancer. To date, there are a few reports examining GR expression in human prostate cancer (Yemelyanov et al., 2007; Mohler et al., 1996) and no information on GR status in prostate cancer from androgen-deprived patients.